six-six-twentyfive

 

06-06-25. Six, six is the highest number possible if you are rolling two dice. Around two thirds, if taken as a percent; a B in an exam. Today was somewhere between these scores, succeeding in finding two out of the three items on my wishlist, but also seeing many more treasures, filling my SD card with well over two thousand images. 2k photos is possibly a record (I hope never to beat) and mainly due to the pre-burst mode (although a station coffee also aided and abetted) which I have been enjoying lately but fires off shots like a machine gun, to be mostly deleted in post. However a hundred photos still made the grade reflecting an excellent day out. Never mind the quality feel the width!

The forecast was promising and I swithered about getting the 9.39 or 10.40 North Berwick train. Too early and the butterflies might not be out for the first miles. However if it's sunny all day I wanted maximum time to explore and hunt quarry. The earlier train was an excellent choice as Maggie S tapped my arm as we stood in the queue to get through the barrier. Non-stop banter to Longniddry where I got off. Another (artist) runner who now walks these days and maybe we will meet up soon to do some of that. A fine start to the day.

I felt I maybe ran half the day and walked the rest. I ran the sections where there was nothing to photo. I carried the camera in my left hand. When walking I can hook it on the harness I wear but the shoogle is too much to run like this. As long as I am not in a hurry this is an acceptable price for the higher quality results that have become the normal since I got the G9. It is just too excellent to leave behind. 

Just out the end of Longniddry Bents no.3 there is a windshaded area, a grassy triangle of flowers and gorse, that sometimes has a little zoo of butterflies. Within seconds a common blue flew up and as I gave chase 2 others joined in. I spent about 20minutes filling my boots. I was late to a party that had started more than a week ago, these the first common blues I have seen this year. None had shown themselves last few visits to Holyrood the weather not helping. Now there seemed an excess to compensate though little did I realise the rest of the day would see surprisingly few of these glorious coloured marvels. It is only listening to the wind on the video sountrack I am reminded there was a stiff cold breeze about and any exposed areas (like Aberlady savanah and along the coast past Gullane) were surprisingly butterfly free. Or at least reduced numbers from what you'd expect on six, six.

Yeah, I probably took too many blue photos. And yet I feel I didn't quite get THE shot, which would have allowed me to move on to the next part of the journey. The last one, below, was along the way a bit towards the entrance to Gosford House. How could I run past and not kneel down to get a shot of this delight on pretty flowers?

as everywhere, the 7-spots are having a bumper year

I thought I'd found an aberration, a remarkable thing, a blank ladybird, a zero spotter! Sometime later, and not without disappointment, I discovered this is how 7-spots emerge until their shells harden and their defining spots appear like an old film photograph in a tray of developer.

For a while, every white butterfly I saw that wasn't an orange tip was a green-veined white. Today as if by pre-arrangement the GVWs have left the stage to be entirely replaced by small whites. I had been wondering where they'd got to. Must just have been biding their time and now are everywhere. Glad to see it wasn't any kind of small-white-armageddon.

I had been anticipating the SOC garden just before Aberlady. They manage their smallish landscapes front and back in spectacular fashion, planting all the season's best garden flowers for pollinators. It is just amazing currently and well worth a visit. Sadly the breeze seemed to be keeping the butterflies away but if it ever drops while the sun is out I expect the place to attract all the butterflies and bees from miles around to swarm there full speed ahead. Whoever maintains the place does so with gusto.

While there, I got speaking to someone who does similar work locally. They were a huge fan of the wildlife at their place of work and openly condemned the dog-walkers, the shouty children and generally just the public for disturbing the wildlife he'd otherwise enjoy, especially out-of-hours when the public weren't ruining everything! He flagged up a sighting of a creature I later noted has not made it onto iRecord around these parts. Something I very much look forward to tracking down later in the season. Sorry to just leave it as a tease - I hate folk doing that on the socials - but I feel like I was handed a potentially awesome secret and don't want to reveal it until I have had the chance to check it out myself. Watch this space. 

large skipper!

I could see no butterflies on the more obvious flowers of the SOC garden. They have a couple of meadow areas just crammed with grasses and wildflowers. I reckoned that's where the good stuff was, and had a quick scan of them. Something orange flew up and away at great speed. I didn't get anything more than a flash of orange in my peripheral vision but reckoned large skipper. Number two on my wishlist of three (common blues, large skippers, DGFs) and I went over to the other meadow area next to the tall hedge. There was a small path between hedge and meadow to help get closer. I had no idea where the skipper had flown to and thought the chance of finding it was a hundred to one or worse. But moments later I saw an orange triangle and it sat for a couple of photos before shooting off again, to I-knew-not-where.

large skipper in the SOC garden

I was very pleased by the large skipper. As I have previously posted their appearance in E Lothian is not new but you had to go to Dunglass on the other side of Dunbar to see them a few years back. Since then they have moved West towards Edinburgh. Ken saw one in Holyrood but they are not yet regulars within the city. This year is the first I have seen them consistently along the coast and my next stop was Postman's Walk, where Geoff had reported them just a few days ago. My last couple of trips to Postman's were blighted by the disappearance of the holly blues. The feeling being the parasitic wasps that prey on them had caught up with them at this site and they have moved on to pastures new, hopefully only a temporary measure. It does feel like a real loss and not the magical place it has been since 2019. However the addition of large skippers goes some way towards compensation.

the oldest comma in the world!

aging female skipper

bee photobombing male large skipper

another oldie, this time a peacock

small white in action

Small tortoiseshells have really been in decline down South. They haven't been doing well in Scotland either but not taking the hit they have in England. Various theories to explain it, but none certain. So every small tort I see is very much cherished. This could be an extinction event. Fabulous to see this new specimen on the bramble flowers at Postman's and later in the day a couple at Yellowcraig's. I tried to do some taking off shots with mixed results.

some new speckleds also about

It was great to see large skippers at Postman's Walk. I thought I'd taken more photos than appear here. They are quite tricky specimens and not keen on human company. I was also in a hurry to get going as I had an agenda. Blues and DGFs are not the easiest to photo and I hoped to bump into loads after crossing the bridge to enchantment.

Weirdly - given I have seen plenty posted online from Scottish sites, there was almost none of either. I had a good stomp through the usual places I'd expect to see blues and the occasional DGF then was quite careful along the side of the golf course on what I once called fritillary alley because they'd criss-cross the path in front of you on the way to the beach. But nothing! I'm pretty sure it wasn't just me being careless as I took the time at a few spots that usually produce the goods. Right enough there wasn't the usual amount of flowers in those areas that I'd expect to bring out the butterflies. Rather than get upset I just kept moving as there was a near continual stream of wildlife of one sort or another, such as this very relaxed young roe buck maybe 20m away more interested in eating than being spooked by my company. 

yeah, not really bothered!

I saw a pheasant duck down in the next field, hoping I hadn't seen it. I wandered over and it eventually realised it had been made and flew off. Didn't make the usual noise which makes you jump when they burst from the undergrowth. Then a couple of linnets showing a fledgling how to find snacks on the short grass of the tee-ing off area of the golf course.

I was hunting absent DGFs when I heard a jet plane roar and turned to see 10 red arrows making their way across the sky from West to East. This was spookily like the 5th July 2023 when I was doing Longniddry to NB on virtually exactly the same route as today (but seeing more in the way of blues and DGFs.) Only 9 jets on that occasion. And I was expecting them as Hazel the icecream had told me they were flying past after celebrating the new King in Edinburgh. Interestingly I got better photos on this occasion, being taken by surprise, than waiting on a hill specifically for them. I think mainly due to them passing by nearly overhead. It was thrilling albeit something of a cheap thrill unlike the more lasting reward of large skippers, of which there were several throughout the day (and for years to come).

dwarfed by a huge sky

talking of skylarks

Blue jellyfish Cyanea lamarckii
several of these along Aberlady beach

Pullet carpet shell, Venerupis corrugata

I took a photo with my mobile which always deteriorates horribly by the time I've translated it across to a different platform. iPhone to PC via the cloud seems to stomp the life out of it - looks fantastic on my iPad - looks shiiiiiit on my (PC) blog. 

cinnabar moth: a couple of these fluttering about
like a drunken flag-bearer at a football match

Just near Gullane Point this wood pigeon was sitting on this sign. It looked so relaxed I was reluctant to continue, forcing it to leave its perch. I tried to go round as quietly and slowly as possible, reassuring it with low chat, but the narrow path and my proximity forced it to fly off. 

looking back towards the capital not everyone was getting good weather

some in Gullane Bay were pretending it was the Med
I did not need to go anywhere near the water to know it was not!

Had a chat to Hazel the icecream
and even bought a cone

I ate lunch at the picnic tables near the new toilet block. Lunch was a Margiotta's sandwich from Aberlady. I had a wholesome bar for lunch-pudding but decided instead on a cone from Hazel, whose van I'd seen on the way down to the picnic tables. She is universally very chipper but today was having a bit of a grumble. Her and I watch the forecast as carefully for sunny days and both of us are reluctant to come out when it is overcast or poor weather. A couple of times recently I have been here when she was not and I joked to Mary that she will have retired on the fortune she must have made during the hot and sunny Spring. While we all enjoyed that ridiculous European Spring it kinda gets you used to spectacular weather, and when things return to normal it seems even worse than before. 

Hazel was now having a bit of a moan about conditions: just 4 cars in the car park the day before! Days like that you regret even turning up. It was most unlike Hazel who is (almost) always upbeat and smiley. I enjoyed the cone. Who doesn't like ice cream? Even this whippy stuff. However I regard it as junk food and mostly avoid. Last cone I had was one of maybe two in Tenerife over three weeks in December. And they had sweet baked-on-the-premises cones unlike the slightly cardboardy ones Hazel fills. Always nice to chat though.

Just after Gullane Bay is an area of wildflowers and trails through the dunes where many butterflies including DGFs often lurk. When there were none there, I knew there wouldn't be any all day. However there were large skippers which turned up at regular intervals enjoying the viper's bugloss, and I bumped into the only other common blue of the day. It was a place we'd seen and photo-ed them before.

I realised I'd got to know the best spots over many many days out running along the coast and anticipated each as it arrived. Most, I'd put a hold on the forward momentum and circle round a few times looking at flowers, hoping to come across the updates of former glories. It works well as places preferred by butterflies, unless disturbed or developed, often retain the same plants and windshade that attracted the butterflies in a previous year. Even though the next generation haven't had any communications with their parents, they will tend towards the same habitats as their ancestors

On this occasion many of the plants just weren't quite as far on as required by the butterflies. No spear thistles as yet - favourites of the DGF. However loads of viper's bugloss. I checked all the best areas for fritillaries but there was no sign of them. Usually, if they are out, I'd see them zooming about the dunes and grassy trails before Archerfields. None today, not even a distant glimpse. Again confirmation that I wasn't just missing them, they defo weren't out. I checked the Chinese privet near the propellor cone, just beginning to bloom. I could see them building the stands for the Open or whatever golf tournament always infests this section of coast. The tournament is usually underway by the time I come here to photograph the butterflies. 

a bit hazy

an ingeniously folded blade of grass/reed
containing the egg sac of the spider(?) who folded it

I have done a bit of searching on google but can't come up with much, and no UK images to match this. However google AI says it could be the spider Clubiona phragmitis: The silk retreat is often easiest to see, woven into a folded reed leaf or Phragmites head, where the female may be found guarding her egg-sac. Very clever engineering / origami.

another (female) large skipper
the females seem to have the most pronounced wing markings

Lots of stonechats out and about today. From my slim knowledge of them there appeared to be a few juveniles out today. The dads teaching them how to stay exactly the correct distance from a photographer. Close enough to get an okay photo and keep them interested but not close enough to get anything outstanding. 

juv stonechat

fairly friendly male stonechat
although probably telling me to clear off

female

female

Crossing a hill and turning a corner I came across this doe who hadn't initially seen me. I stood still and shot some video (below) and stills before she clocked me. I was amused to have seen her before she saw me. She assessed the situation then did a few large bounds and leaps to put another hundred yards between us, then reassess. Her companion, a male, seemed less bothered. I suspect he was thinking "he smells like one of us."

not as jumpy

stonechats, deer and a common blue

mostly male eiders with a couple of females
couldn't see any chicks

soldier beetle

a couple of walls near Yellowcraig beach

Towards the far side of Yellowcraig Beach there was a large sprawl of sea rocket on the sand. I stood for a bit watching to see if there were any butterflies. Due to the light coloured flowers and sandy background it makes a great place to photo butterflies. I was pleased to see a wall and a couple of brand new small torts although I cursed as well as I had to hop down a steep sandy bank and I'd only recently emptied my shoes of sand. (I was wearing gaiters but the New Balance uppers seem to let sand freely in the airy material.) It was totally worth it to get photos of these dazzling butterflies, which looked very recently emerged. Just a delight to follow them about the beach trying to get shots of them lifting off one perch and finding another. This was towards the end of a long day and I was in a sunscorched befrazzlement watching them go from flower to flower. I took a million too many photos.

wall

lift-off!

in flight

video of stills run together
to Elegy for Peace by Felix Rösch

And that was about it. I was feeling weary but happy that I'd captured a few excellent things along the day's journey. It had been really great weather all day, a little bit windy and some cloud cover, but nothing compared to tales I heard of downpours and rain-stopped-play. I got to the station in plenty time to catch the 4.20 but it was cancelled, so I wandered down to the main street and bought some fluids in the Coop and then had a pint of cider in the Golfers Rest. I'd changed damp clothes for dry ones at the far end of the platform. I washed my face and hands in the pub toilet and was semi-respectable for the train home which I probably dozed on. My tummy felt dodgy as the protein milk shake and the cider probably curdled. Another great day out although I'm going to have to do it all again shortly when the DGFs finally appear. Hard life, but someone has to. 😎

house martin

grumpy cat near the station

15+miles to NB station, (in about 6hrs) then along to pub and back
plus two in Edinburgh to Waverley and back.
I imagine the red bits are running, the blue, walking/stationary.
Really enjoyable day out!